The object of the invention is a system and process for the individual and collective transportation of people within a defined territory, particularly intended for urban sites, by means of a fleet of autonomous vehicles put to the disposition of a given population, so as to complement a public transport network.
At the present time, dense urban zones are becoming increasingly polluted and congested by the circulation of individual vehicles. Public transport systems have been developed to remedy this problem.
However, bus services that use the normal street system still remain a source of pollution and are slow moving because, even with access to reserved bus lanes, they are subject to obstructions by individual vehicles, at least at street intersections, so that their average speed remains relatively low.
Underground transport systems, such as subways, are a slight source of pollution and their speed is good However, even though dense subway systems could be built in some cities at the beginning of the 20th century, their expansion is very costly and can be made only on certain lines or using existing railway lines.
Moreover, urban sprawl has created longer distances for people to travel between their homes and their workplaces.
To facilitate access to urban centers, regional transportation systems have been created most often using existing rail lines, but these lines are organized, typically, in a star configuration from the city center so that rarely are there peripheral connections between outlying townships or suburban districts.
Thus, using a private vehicle remains a necessary means of transportation for a lot of people, at least to access a regional transportation network and car parks must be built, resulting in a high expenditure for municipalities because of the extensive amount of land required to accommodate the numbers of parked cars.
Even if multistoried car parks are created, they require access ramps and circulation aisles on each storey, so that the necessary space for each parked vehicle requires 25 m2. Thus multistoried car parks can occupy a significant amount of space and, if realized at ground level, are too costly to remain profitable, considering the land cost in urban districts.
In certain cities, where ground conditions can permit, the public domain may be used to create underground parking structures, but the number of such car parks remains insufficient and the cost excessive.
Furthermore, private automobiles used in this way remain stationary on the ground most of the time.
In any event, considering the increase in automobile traffic and the resulting increase in pollution, it has been necessary to search for new solutions that can be as drastic as limiting the circulation of private vehicles or reducing their use by introducing a toll system within urban centers.
For commuters coming from greater distances, large parking areas can be built on the city's periphery adjacent to a public transit station which then provides access to the city center. Meanwhile, public transportation networks are rarely dense enough and often require people to walk long distances to attain their final destination.
Even if a circle line is created betweens urban communities around the city center, the possibilities of public transportation are always limited and very costly to realize. Thus the dependency on private vehicles remains a necessity in many cases.
Other options include taxis, but they can be burdensome particularly outside of city centers as there are few of them so they can be difficult to find.
Another possibility, if one wants to avoid using a private vehicle, is to rent a car from a car rental agency, for instance in proximity to a train station or airport, and to return the rented car eventually to another agency. Such a system is rather costly and may be useful only for long displacements between distant cities and for periods of one day or more.
To facilitate the transport of people within a limited territory without having to use private vehicles, systems of shared vehicles have been proposed.
Document EP-A-0991031, for example, describes such a shared system that allows for the displacement of individuals between different destinations within an amusement park. This kind of park obviously prohibits the use of private vehicles and the use of a shuttle system would permit transit between attractions but requires long waits each time. Thus, this document proposes a shared system of independent vehicles distributed amongst parking lots located in proximity to a hotel and to different attractions within the park with multiple vehicles available at each site. Each visitor procures a transport title linked to a control system that allows access to the parking lot, authorizing the person to withdraw a vehicle to use as transportation to an attraction where the vehicle can be parked, and where it may be, in turn, used by another visitor. In this way, rather than having the visitor rent a vehicle for the duration of his/her stay in the park, where the vehicle remains stationary at each attraction during each visit, a vehicle that is parked at an attraction can be immediately taken by another visitor leaving the said attraction. The number of vehicles in service and the size of each parking lot can be calculated in function of the number of visitors and the duration of each attraction such that each visitor can find a vehicle at his/her disposition upon exiting the attraction.
The inventor had the idea to create a whole system for the storage and sharing of vehicles in order to facilitate vehicular circulation in urban areas, where it would be possible to make use of a fleet of autonomous vehicles as a complement to a public transportation network, in such a way that the users, being assured of having a vehicle at their disposition at any time, would relinquish the use of their personal car within the urban center or, if they are coming from outside the city, would accept to park their cars at the city periphery, and then use the proposed collective transport.
The inventor then realized that, to this aim, a number of conditions needed to be met.
To begin with, studies undertaken in public transportation have shown that the majority of users will not accept displacement by foot unless it is over short distances. For example, in a city like Paris (or other similar large cities) that benefits from a dense public transportation network, where connections have been created between local transit lines or with regional transportation networks, it appeared that users have difficulty accepting a transfer time by foot that exceeds 4 to 5 minutes, or 300 to 500 meters maximum (unless a rolling sidewalk is made available).
To complement the public transportation network with a system of shared vehicles, it would be necessary for the parking garages containing the vehicles to be sited in immediate proximity to a connecting station.
This implies the realization of a large number of parking garages distributed throughout a urban territory where open land is scarce and very costly.
Moreover, each user would want to find a free vehicle immediately and, taking into account the number of users concerned, which would be far greater than the number of users at an amusement park, each garage would have to contain a large number of vehicles, 15 to 20 or more to be practical, depending on the public transit station it serves.
At the same time, each user returning a vehicle would want to do so very quickly in order to transfer onto the public transit system in the shortest time possible for the transfer.